A few weeks ago we featured English words
derived from Native American languages. We were very careful to use the term Native
American rather than Indian as we didn't wish to confuse the issue. Indian
means "from India". Americans often use the term "East Indian"
to denote something from India but then what phrase can one use to mean something from the
"East Indies"? Isn't it about time we stopped covering up Columbus's
mistakes? By the way, Columbus was so aggressively defensive about his claims that,
on his third and last visit to the New World, he had a gibbet permanently fixed to the
taff-rail of his flagship and threatened to hang any member of his crew who suggested that
they might not, actually, be in India.

We are sure that our readers would recognize
such words as curry, guru and jodhpurs as being Indian, but did you
realize that verandah (Hindi varanda, Bengali baranda) and chutney
(Hindi chatni) are Indian, too?

You did? Then how about shampoo,
bungalow and pajamas? A shampoo was originally a massage and
comes from a Hindi word meaning "to press". A bungalow is merely a Bengali
house, that is, a house in the style of Bengal. Pajamas (or in England pyjamas)
came from Persian (paÿ "foot, leg" + jamah "clothing")
via the Indian language Urdu. Only in the West are pajamas sleepwear.
In India one wears them in the street.

Urdu is a creole which resulted from the
Moghul invasions of India. It is written in the Persian script and contains numerous
Persian words. In fact, the very name Urdu is Persian for
"army". Incidentally, when Urdu is written in the same alphabet as Hindi
it is called Hindustani.

Jazz and rock drummers are likely to play floor-toms
as part of their standard kit. This term is a modern adaptation of the word tom-tom,
the English form of the Hindi tam-tam. Nowadays we reserve the word tam-tam
for a huge drum (but sometimes it's a huge gong) used in classical and orchestral music.

Dungarees take their name from a
coarse Indian calico (another Indian word) and sandals used to be made of sandalwood
(Sanskrit chandan). Did you think that tie-dying was invented by hippies in
the 1960s? Well, when the word bandanna was introduced into English in the
1750s it meant "a kind of tie-dyed cloth made in India" (from Hindustani bandhnu).

Surprisingly, jungle comes from jangala,
a word which means "a dry, arid desert". When we put our baby to bed in
his cot we seldom realize that this word is really the Hindi khat.
Thus, while the English were colonizing India the Indians were colonizing the English
language with Indian words.

Your
Etymological Queries Answered

From the Ramseys:

How did silhouette come to have its
current meaning?

Well, for such a relatively recent word
there are a remarkable number of theories. As we all know, a silhouette is
a portrait of (usually) a face, in profile, in which only the outline is rendered, which
is then filled-in with black. While it is certain that this genre of portraiture
takes its name from Étienne de Silhouette (1709­67), a French politician, nobody seems
to be able to agree why.

The most popular explanation is that the
name came about as a joke. It states that these economical portraits were
dubbed silhouettes as a way of ridiculing the kind of petty economies which were
instituted by Monsieur de Silhouette while he was Controller-general (very briefly, in
1759).

One of the characteristics of silhouettes
is that they may be executed very speedily. So, another suggestion agrees that the
term is a joke about Étienne de Silhouette but differs in opining that the point of the
joke was to lampoon Monsieur de Silhouette's very short tenure as Controller-general.

Wait, we're not finished yet. There is
still a third theory which would have us believe that M. de Silhouette himself was adept
at this kind of portrait and used them to decorate the walls of his chateau at
Bry-sur-Marne. Oh well, you pays yer money an' you takes yer choice.

From Joe Francis:

Regarding the word squaw, I was led
to believe that it was basically a word for reference to women's anatomical parts, and as
such, derogatory. Merriam-Webster says it is derogatory, but doesn't give the full
etymology. Can you illuminate?

Squaw comes from either the
Narragansett word squaws "woman" or the Massachusetts squa, ussqua
"woman" or "younger woman". All three of those forms come ultimately
from Proto-Algonquian *ethkwe'wa. Squaw entered English in the early
16th century.

We can't claim to speak for the
Merriam-Webster editors, but we imagine that it is said to be disparaging because of the
way that white English-speakers thought of Native Americans. By calling someone a squaw,
the speaker was implying that she was somehow different from a "woman" or
"wife". It was this attitude of "we have wives; they have squaws"
that gave this word its disparaging or offensive overtones.

From Dustin Oakley:

I have been trying to find the origin of the
term copycat.

Cat has been used to refer
contemptibly to people at least as far back as Shakespeare's time ("A pox upon him
for me, hes more and more a Cat", in Alls Well That Ends Well.
It was simply paired with copy to refer to someone who mimicked another's
actions. Copycat made its first known appearance in writing in 1896: "I
aint heard of a copy-cat this great many years..twas a favorite term
o my grandmothers" in S. O. Jewett's Country of Pointed Firs.

From Danna Botwick:

I am seeking the origin of the word whore.

This word, now considered coarse and
abusive, has venerable roots in Old English and beyond, perhaps confirming that
prostitution is at least one of the world's oldest professions. It comes
ultimately from the Indo-European root *qar- (or *ka-) "to like,
desire". It is first found in late Old English as hóre, with cognates
in Old High German huora, Old Norse hóra, Gothic hôrs
"adulterer", and Old Frisian hôr "adultery", to name a
few. The Indo-European root gave rise to another set of words which went in a
different direction, such as Latin carus "dear" (source of English charity,
caress, and cherish), Old Irish cara "friend" and caraim
"to love", and Welsh cariad "dear".

From Helen:

First of all, I'd like to say that I really
enjoy your web site. I've been wondering why sailors are called tars.
I've also heard them called tarpaulins and I assume that is where tar comes
from.

Yes, sailors were commonly known as tars
or Jack-tars from the 17th century onward. Several sources suggest that this
is a shortened form of tarpaulin. Tarpaulin, thought to be so named
because it is canvas impregnated with tar to make it waterproof, was a very common
item onboard ships.

However, other etymologists believe the term
arose because sailors in the 17th century would put tar on their trousers to make them
waterproof. This derivation does not arise via tarpaulin.

Finally, many sailors today say that the
word arose because sailors put tar in their hair to keep it waterproof and out of
their faces in the stiff winds at sea. Whether anyone took this drastic step we
cannot say.

If you were wondering, tar itself
goes way back to Old English (the late 7th or early 8th century, at least) and is thought
to be related to tree, among other words, coming from the Indo-European root *derw-
"firm, solid, steadfast". The sense here is that trees are solid and that
tar comes from (certain) trees.

...our soapbox where we vent our
spleen regarding abuses of the English language.

We Only Discuss Pet Peeves
Here, We Don't Play Golf With Them

Ann Hogan writes:

One of my pet peeves is what I call the
Lonely Only, a misplaced modifier, as in "She only eats vegetables," which
means, I suppose, that she doesn't use them for sporting goods and other purposes.

Indeed! Of course, it should be
"She eats only vegetables" which means that she is a vegetarian or, perhaps even
a vegan, notwithstanding her sporting-good preferences.

To show how the meaning of a sentence is
altered by the position of only, consider the following:

(a) "Only Jane likes John on
Fridays."

This means that no one but Jane likes John
on Fridays.

(b) "Jane only likes John on
Fridays."

Jane likes (but does not love) John on
Fridays.

(c) "Jane likes only John on
Fridays. "

Jane likes no-one but John on Fridays
.

(d) "Jane likes John on Fridays
only."

Jane likes John on Fridays but not during
the rest of the week.

(e) "Jane likes John only on
Fridays."

This is ambiguous. It could mean the
same as (c) or (d).

Misplaced modifiers are very common.
In fact, we invite you, Our Readers, to submit other examples of adverbial (or adjectival)
anarchy, culled from newspapers, magazines, etc. Please provide the source of your
submission (e.g., "The Sunday Times", London, 10 May, 1999). We'll post
the ten best right here in a few weeks.

If it is English language, and not words of
American origin, that count in counting k's, then what about: kickback (and antikickback);
knock-kneed (do hyphens count?); knickknack; the Biblical Habakkuk;
and the Canadian TakkakawFalls?

Ah, here we have even more English words
containing three k's (see Issue 38). We must,
however, note that there are only three k's in knicknack, at least in the
unhyphenated form. Your proper nouns are fine examples even though we were really
seeking common nouns, among other parts of speech. Susan, you're OK!